Chapter 27 Extraordinary Communication 1
If I answered "no" here, would you just let me go home? I had that thought, and then I answered, "Yes."
Although I really wanted to go home first to check on Mazao's condition, unlike before when I chose whether to re-enter the cave, choosing to communicate with Zhu Shi would not sever my connection with the "fireflies".
On my way to this forest, I released a few fireflies to go back home and check on my behalf.
"You just said that this monster is a Fallen Demon Hunter?" I didn't miss Zhu Shi's use of the term "demon." "So, it's actually... a human?"
In other words, could this demon be Asahi? Absolutely not. The current Asahi is far from being lively and energetic; she might even trip and fall while walking normally on flat ground.
It can be ruled out that Asahi is a fallen witcher (serial killer).
“That’s right. So you didn’t know he was human before? ... That’s a good thing. We shouldn’t show mercy when dealing with such evil spirits. If you had known he was human, it might have been harder to take action directly…” Zhu Shi nodded thoughtfully, then walked towards the demon lying on the ground. “You’ve probably heard from other places that a serial killer has recently appeared in Saltwater City. Actually, he… um?”
Suddenly, she hesitated for a moment, her gaze lingering on the demon.
The demon remained motionless.
"What's wrong?" I asked alertly, sensing the embers still clinging to the demon's body.
Zhu Shi moved forward again, first circling the demon twice, then bending down to touch its chest, and exclaimed in surprise, "He..."
"...Dead?" I came to the same conclusion. "You killed him?"
The demon had stopped breathing completely.
This wasn't faking death; I could sense that he was just pretending. Now, he was less of a living being and more of a large, lifeless piece of charred, raw flesh.
"No, I didn't." Zhu Shi shook his head. "I just knocked him unconscious."
“I only damaged his skin and some muscles; I didn’t damage any vital organs or other fatal parts,” I explained. “Although his legs were blown apart, I quickly cauterized the wounds with flames, so he didn’t lose much blood, and it’s impossible that he died from blood loss… Could it be burn shock? Did he die from shock?”
If the cause is me, meaning I killed someone?
I tried to find some guilt within myself, but I felt nothing, not even a sense of reality. This demon didn't look human, and it didn't burn like a human either. I found it very difficult to believe that I had killed someone.
“Impossible. A physical enhancement demon hunter of his caliber wouldn’t die in such a short time from this level of physiological damage, as long as his brain and heart are intact…” Zhu Shi shook his head again, then stepped forward. “In short, let the organization come and retrieve the body first, and then we can do an autopsy analysis.”
When I heard that she was going to perform an autopsy, I removed all the embers from the body.
Before leaving, considering the one in ten thousand chance that the demon had suddenly grasped the essence of feigning death while on the verge of life and death, I carefully sensed it once more. This demon—this fallen demon hunter—was not only not breathing, but also had no heartbeat, and its blood was not flowing normally; I could not sense any vitality whatsoever.
I believe he is truly dead; there is no possibility of anything happening between them.
Zhu Shi's approach was even more direct; she once again drew the sword from her back.
With a flash of sword light, she severed the head of the fallen witcher on the spot; then she plunged the sword into his chest and ripped apart his heart, completing a perfect "life and death check"—as long as she personally killed the person, the conclusion of death that was wrong would become right.
Her approach was simple and direct, yet it also revealed the ruthlessness and efficiency of a professional, as if she had done this more than once. Unlike a novice like me, who was just getting started with bizarre combat, she was already very skilled.
She immediately swung her sword in the air, shaking the blood off the blade and onto the ground, before sheathing it again.
-
Zhu Shi took out his phone and made a call. Not long after, some people in gray uniforms arrived at the scene, loaded the demon's corpse into a car, and left.
She then led me to another secluded spot. I carefully observed her attire along the way. A straw raincoat, a bamboo hat, a sword, and her beautiful face—she looked like the heroine of an ancient martial arts drama.
Does this unusual attire have any special significance? Or is it simply the uniform exclusive to the combat personnel of Luoshan? Whatever the truth, this outfit perfectly suits my taste, and I couldn't help but take a few more glances. It's not that I like martial arts-style clothing, but on such an unreal night, her intervention in my battle with the demon in such an unrealistic attire, far from being insensitive, actually made me even more intrigued.
Recalling her ruthless and experienced demeanor when she finished off the demon, she demonstrated the battlefield style that I believe a "monster hunter" should have.
The only drawback is that, beneath the raincoat, one can vaguely see that she is also wearing casual clothes and short boots, a "flaw" that would be considered a blooper in a period martial arts drama. But perhaps this has its merits; there is a certain beauty born from disharmony, I convince myself.
Not only was I looking at Zhu Shi repeatedly, but Zhu Shi was also looking at me repeatedly.
Although she maintained a calm demeanor throughout, her initial expression of disbelief was probably her truest state of mind. Even now, she still seems unable to accept it, scrutinizing me as if searching for some flaw in me to prove that I am not the Zhuang Cheng she remembers.
While I wasn't as devastated as she was, I could still understand her feelings. The fact that my friend's sister was a witcher working in a supernatural organization dealing with the supernatural was such a fantastical and coincidental event; it seemed like something out of a story. Tonight truly felt like a dream.
"You just said that I'm also a witcher, what do you mean by that?" I started the conversation.
Zhu Shixian composed himself before answering, "It means exactly what it says. Anyone who possesses power related to the supernatural is called a Witcher."
"Could I understand it like this..." I said, thinking, "Suppose there exists a superpowered person who simply has superpowers but has never hunted monsters, has no desire for it, and whose abilities are not even suitable for combat... Would he also be classified as a 'demon hunter'?"
“Yes,” she affirmed.
"Isn't this a bit strange? Why not just call them superpowered individuals, or warlocks, or even extraordinary individuals like in online novels?" I wondered.
"I don't know either, that's what everyone calls it," she replied casually.
After a moment's thought, some ideas, though not quite in words, came to mind.
She clearly didn't intend to dwell on such trivial matters of address, so she went straight to the point and asked, "Zhuang Cheng, when did you become a superhuman?"
You usually call me "Senior Brother Zhuang," so why are you suddenly calling me by my first name now...? I swallowed those words.
When Zhu Shi used to address me that way, I always felt like she was praising me, which made me a little uncomfortable. I even suggested to her that it would be better to call me by my first name. But now that she actually did it, I feel uncomfortable from a different perspective. I really am a troublesome person.
But those were minor details, and I answered her normally: "I awakened my superpowers more than four years ago."
"More than four years... that is, when I was just starting high school? Or a little earlier, when I was almost graduating from junior high... I see, no wonder you've been like this all these years..."
Gradually, she seemed to have figured something out on her own.
After a moment of contemplation, she asked again, "Judging from the injuries sustained by the Fallen Witcher, your superpower should be related to fire?"
"My superpower is the ability to summon and manipulate fire," I answered without hesitation.
"They actually managed to take down that fallen witcher with such ordinary abilities?"
She seemed very surprised, but was it necessary to be so surprised?
Fire abilities are certainly among the most unassuming in superpower battle comics, but compared to transforming into a muscular monster, I feel it's at least a cut above in terms of style. In many battle stories I've read before, large-scale physical attack characters like the Fallen Witcher would probably only be suitable as early-stage villains, and even those dignified main villains, if they used giantification or monsterization skills, would be admitting they were doomed to be defeated, and their ending would most likely be one where they wouldn't even leave behind a complete corpse.
However, I am also well aware that I know nothing about the supernatural world, let alone Luo Shan's evaluation criteria for the power of demon hunters. Using half-baked knowledge of the story as a reference will not work. Perhaps other fire ability users are unexpectedly weak, to the point that fire ability is seen by others as something that looks good but is useless.
"Can you tell me the whole story?" Zhu Shi pressed.
"Can."
I recounted everything that happened from the moment I encountered the Fallen Witcher until Zhu Shi intervened, including all the skills I used in battle.
Zhu Shi then took out his phone from inside his raincoat again, using it as a makeshift voice recorder to record my narration.
Actually, for someone with superpowers like myself, if it's just for self-preservation, it's best to keep my fighting methods hidden. However, I hope to leave a good impression on Luoshan through Zhu Shi. In the future, through Luoshan, an official supernatural organization, I might be able to obtain more credible clues about strange events, and thus encounter even more diverse and fascinating strange occurrences.
In my mind, getting to know Luoshan was even more important than getting to know Mazao.
To go further, if I could join Luoshan and become one of them, Asahi would no longer be necessary for me.
Luoshan is a very large organization; as the saying goes, you can run away from the monk but not the temple. Now that I know of Luoshan's existence, I'll have plenty of ways to contact them in the future.
But what about Asahi? Aside from her unwavering desire to leave, she even claims to possess the power of spatial teleportation. Assuming her claims are true, she could simply teleport to a place I don't know after recovering. While it's not impossible to use superpowers to track her down and bring her back, I seem to have a much better option now.
Of course, I actually have an even better option.
That is, "I want them all".
There's not much to say about my confrontation with the Fallen Witcher; it was basically a one-sided stomp by me. I quickly recounted the entire incident to Zhu Shi.
As soon as I started describing my abilities, Zhu Shi quietly put away his phone, which he had been using as a makeshift recorder, and an undisguised look of shock gradually appeared on his face.
"You can ignite a target with your gaze, and even targets outside your field of vision can burn... an inextinguishable flame that can keep burning no matter where your opponent escapes to?" After a moment of stunned silence, she couldn't help but shout, "What kind of 'ordinary flame manipulation' is this?!"
(End of this chapter)
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